The Happy Blog

  • Newspapers Opening Up Content

    It is nice to see that the NY Times web site has finally decided to open up their content for free. This is proof that Newspapers are finally realizing the opportunities of online advertising.

    Internet users are used to seeing advertisements and with the IAB maintaining standards, ads are becoming more effective. What I find interesting is the number of advertisers that think a click through is the only way to track success. In 2004, Double Click announced that the view through rate is consistently higher than the click through rate. This is difficult for the smaller advertisers to track but it is still an important consideration to keep in mind.

  • Keeping up the Energy – How I try to stay inspired

    One of the most challenging tasks that I deal with is staying energized. By nature, I am an outgoing person, but even with my unusually energetic personality, I often find myself slowing down and losing focus of my goals. This is difficult to deal with because if I had my way, I would be running none stop 24 hours a day.

    Throughout the past year, I have learned the importance of not over exerting myself. It didn’t take long to catch on because I took on a ridiculous amount of free lance and started a new management position at my work.

    I have been making the extra effort to work the typical 8 hour work day. The secret is making sure those 8 hours count. This helps me rationalize leaving on time.

    It scares me to death to run out of inspiration so I thought I would share a few things that I do to push myself.

    * The number one thing that helps me stay focused is reading. Nothing gives me more inspiration and ideas than a good read from a useful blog or book.
    * A nice run outside with my dog helps me get my mind on track.
    * I told myself that I am not going to do free lance any more. It is hard to turn down but in the bigger picture, I would much rather work on personal projects in my free time than having to manage some one else’s. Freelance can also take away from holiday and family time, which can be the biggest problem of all.
    * Look for inspiration and ideas daily. Whether it is a quick search on Digg or Google, visual inspiration on the Internet can be a huge help.
    * Podcasts are always useful and entertaining. There are a ton of excellent podcasts online that tackle industry specific issues.

    This is pretty much all that I do to stay up. With the exception of taking some video game and movie breaks, I can’t think of much more.

  • Have a Mint!

    For the past few days I’ve been testing a really cool web stats app called have a mint. This application is developed by the well known desginer Shaun Inman.

    For starters, I want to mention that this is the best statistical application that I’ve ever come across. All of the needed web stats are conveniently loaded on one page and it even provides an rss feed so you dashboard users can access your stats. For a complete feature list and demo check out haveamint.com

  • Search Engine Optimization is Overated

    While chatting with a fellow web geek today, I was told that “Search Engine Optimization is overrated “. Given that this individual is directly related to the success of a very large web site, this surprised the hell out of me.

    After a quick chat with my online director, I came to realize that there is a strong level of ignorance in the web development community. You would think this wouldn’t have come as such a shock to me but there are so many web sites out there that are validating to xhtml transitional and are very successful in the general areas of SEO best practices. I think the dis-connect has a lot to do with the fact that Google has switched their Search Engine Algorithm so many times that they think they are following current best practices, but are actually way off.

    The question is, how do you deal with these people? Obviously, I could throw a tantrum, kick him where I shouldn’t, and run away. I have decided to take a more in-direct approach and try to influence the developer and bring him up to speed on the many advantages that SEO brings to the table.

  • Google Site Maps

    I would like to take the time to talk about Google Site Maps. This amazingly useful tool provided by Google gives web folk such as myself a way to make my site more “Google friendly”.

    With the ability to see where your site ranks with Google, webmasters are given the opportunity to strategicly plan and optimize there website and take control over their keyword campaign. At the very least, you can make sure Google has access to crawl your site. The Google Webmasters Tool help page provides a great overview of the available features.

  • My Favorite Newspaper Websites

    I spend a lot of time browsing through and analyzing newspaper web sites. There are a few sites that I visit daily and I would like to share them with my readers:

    * The Globe And Mail
    * The Washington Post
    * Times Online

    The Globe’s site is my absolute favorite newspaper website. It provides a nice blend of clean design, semantic mark-up and unobtrusive ad positioning. I would love to hear about your favorite newspaper sites so please leave a comment.

  • See You Later 2006 | It’s been a Blast

    I have to say, the year of 2006 is one for the books. I’ve managed to get married, buy a dog, buy my first house and land my dream job all in one shot.

  • Matt Cutts: Google SEO Tips

    Matt Cutts, a Search Engine Optimization professional from Google, provides really useful information on Google site rank/SEO in few different videos:

    * Qualities of a good site
    * Some SEO Myths
    * Optimize for Search Engines or for Users

  • The Key to a Successful Website | Project Management

    I have been spending so much of my recent attention dealing with Search Engine Optimization that I feel like I have neglected Project Management. Without a doubt, Project Management is the glue that holds every web project together.

    A properly managed project takes a lot of extra effort but in the long run it pays off big time. Simple procedures such as site maps, wireframes and detailed content inventories make project budgets and timelines a less daunting process. It helps to keep you on track and ultimately leads you through to a less stressful launch date. In fact, I feel that if a site isn’t properly managed and if information architecture isn’t executed properly that the site will be unsuccessful and will eventually flop.

    The good news is that there are a handful of resources that can immediately set you on the right track. The first thing that I would do is read Avoid Edge Cases by Designing Up Front, an amazing article that was recently posted on Alistapart. There is no doubt that this article will blow you away and you will run to your local book store to pick up a copy of Web Re-design 2.0. This book is created for re-design projects but it is just as useful for new projects.

    If you have any other questions or comments, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

  • Don’t Make Me Think | A Must Read

    During the Christmas break, I decided to begin reading a couple of books that have been itching at me for quite some time. The first book that I decided to tackle was Steve Krug’s, Don’t Make Me Think. One of the best things about the book is that it practices what it preaches.

    Don’t Make Me Think is such a quick, easy read, that you can polish it off while on a short flight. Although most of what it covers is common sense, it is really nice to have it front of you in plain English.

    I got the most out of the book from the following sections:

    * Navigation
    * Home Page Design
    * Usability Testing

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